I sincerely apologize for poor behavior on this board.

[wuapinmon]

I know my opinion is not important to this sort of decision, but I wouldn't be opposed to allowing Moose to have a second shot. I don't recall him doing anything so horrible that it merited a lifetime ban.

+1 from me.

[byu71]

I know my opinion is not important to this sort of decision, but I wouldn't be opposed to allowing Moose to have a second shot. I don't recall him doing anything so horrible that it merited a lifetime ban.

If he is allowed on, I hope I won't be saying to all of you later, SUCKERS.

[YOhio]

I know my opinion is not important to this sort of decision...

Totally agree.

[RobinFinderson]

IP tracking is trivial with vbulletin.

And I like to think that we don't need a written rule for every little thing. Sometimes we ought to be able to rely on common sense. Dupe accounts are incredibly lame and juvenile. Fortunately it just hasn't been much of an issue for us with this crowd. From our small pool of banned users, all but one have been mature enough to walk away without creating dupe accounts. I respect that.

IP spoofing is also trivial.

It is just my opinion, and no call for a change in the way you and your appointees police this place, but I would personally let the social cost of dupe accounts be the full cost. To me, policing for anything other than the abuse of others, seems like a waste of time. If someone were to want to reinvent him/herself and either present the dupe account as a different person or a reformed version of the old self, then why not? It might be lame and juvenile, but it might also be something else... I think of more than a few authors and public figures who represent themselves under various pseudonyms (dupe accounts): George Elliot, O. Henry, and Silence Dogood. Indeed, anyone here who isn't using his/her real name, and who believes that the rules of conduct on CUF are different than what s/he follows in real life, has a sort of 'dupe' account. As long as there isn't abuse, I just don't see the harm.

One of the more interesting 'dupe accounts' was that of the young Benjamin Franklin. At age 15, the young Franklin couldn't get anything he wrote published, so he invented the persona of Silence Dogood, a middle-aged widow who had a few things she wanted to say to the rest of the world. For about a year, every two weeks Franklin would slide a Silence Dogood letter under the door of his brother's printing shop. The character of Silence Dogood was a complete fabrication, a funny character who shared her elaborate history because she wanted to be taken seriously:

And since it is observed, the will of that the Generality of People, now a days, are unwilling either to commend or dispraise what they read, until they are in some measure informed who or what the Author of it is, whether he be poor or rich, old or young, a Schollar or a Leather Apron Man, &c. and give their Opinion of the Performance, according to the Knowledge which they have of the Author's Circumstances, it may not be amiss to begin with a short Account of my past Life and present Condition, that the Reader may not be at a Loss to judge whether or no my Lucubrations are worth his reading.

Check out the wikipedia page on Silence Dogood, where you can find her first two letters, where she describes her elaborate history. I think it is funny stuff, especially when you realize this is actually the voice of a 15-yo Benjamin Franklin.

Silence Dogood

[RobinFinderson]

I.e., it should be impossible to ban anyone.

I think that it is important to ban abusive accounts. I think it is impossible, exhausting, and mostly pointless to ban people.

[Jeff Lebowski]

LOL. I am a big fan of the Silence Dogood letters. Young Ben Franklin was a genius. That's funny that you compare that to a dupe account.

When people are banned they are banned. And we ban people, not personas.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I think that it is important to ban abusive accounts. I think it is impossible, exhausting, and mostly pointless to ban people.

This makes no sense.

By the way, every time you created a dupe account back on CG, someone would recognize it after just a few posts. Including Kite Runner. You didn't fool anyone.

[RobinFinderson]

This makes no sense.

By the way, every time you created a dupe account back on CG, someone would recognize it after just a few posts. Including Kite Runner. You didn't fool anyone.

Sure it makes sense. An account is just a channel, like something on television. Sine it is impossible to know whether a new account is started by a single individual, or by a group of people, or whatever, it seems to me that the 'channel' model of accounts is most appropriate. It embraces the reality of net-life. If a channel spews abusive content, we unsubscribe from that channel. It just seems like the easiest thing to do, and the most straightforward way to police.

If a member of CUF was inspired to invent a Silence Dogood, that would be awesome. For a long time I thought Grapevine was some kind of genius dupe account, so much so that I invented Dark Britches, just to see if it could be done (I certainly wasn't up to the task). I can imagine that, in skilled hands, a dupe account could be a pretty great addition to the board. If people want to get creative with the writing medium that is CUF, challenging the idea of authorship (which really isn't such a new challenge, considering Franklin was doing it) then I think that has the potential to be very interesting.

All of this isn't really relative to Moose's situation (except the idea that an account might exist as a collective project). I'd add my voice to those who think that Moose didn't do anything so damaging as to merit a perma-ban.

[UtahDan]

This makes no sense.

By the way, every time you created a dupe account back on CG, someone would recognize it after just a few posts. Including Kite Runner. You didn't fool anyone.

The irony here is too much. Robin creates dupe accounts on CG, permanently depriving him of the good will of some. Robin comes to CUF can eloquently campaigns to be forgiven when it becomes apparent some have not. Robin then says, more or less, that the market place provides its own punishment for dupes. I suppose he knows whereof he speaks.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The irony here is too much. Robin creates dupe accounts on CG, permanently depriving him of the good will of some. Robin comes to CUF can eloquently campaigns to be forgiven when it becomes apparent some have not. Robin then says, more or less, that the market place provides its own punishment for dupes. I suppose he knows whereof he speaks.

Bingo.

[RobinFinderson]

The irony here is too much. Robin creates dupe accounts on CG, permanently depriving him of the good will of some. Robin comes to CUF can eloquently campaigns to be forgiven when it becomes apparent some have not. Robin then says, more or less, that the market place provides its own punishment for dupes. I suppose he knows whereof he speaks.

Bingo.

Then it seems we all agree.

[Katy Lied]

Benji Franklin would have provided a rip roaring troll had he been alive in the internet age.

[BoylenOver]

I know my opinion is not important to this sort of decision, but I wouldn't be opposed to allowing Moose to have a second shot. I don't recall him doing anything so horrible that it merited a lifetime ban.

Moose deserves no such thing. He's had multiple accounts banned on CB and ufn before he ever logged a post on CUF, and now he's here getting his 3rd account banned.

[falafel]

Moose deserves no such thing. He's had multiple accounts banned on CB and ufn before he ever logged a post on CUF, and now he's here getting his 3rd account banned.

How is his behavior on other boards relevant to his behavior here?

[BoylenOver]

How is his behavior on other boards relevant to his behavior here?

Other than the fact that he's acted exactly the same way here?